Moscow: Russia agreed to build Vietnam's first nuclear power plant in a ceremony in Hanoi presided over by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as he seeks to revive ties with the former Soviet ally.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian state nuclear holding company Rosatom Corp, and Vietnam's Industry and Trade Minister Vu Huy Hoang signed an accord for building two reactors by 2020.
"Our partners took an important political decision to entrust us with construction of Vietnam's first nuclear power plant," Kiriyenko told reporters yesterday. "This is the first step."
Vietnam is developing new sources of energy to end blackouts and meet demand from its 86 million people.
The government forecasts economic growth will quicken to as much as 8 per cent annually through 2020. Residents of urban areas including Ho Chi Minh City, the nation's largest, and the capital Hanoi, are subject to periodic daylong power cuts.
Vietnam's government has picked four sites at which it will build at least four reactors each, Kiriyenko said.
Energy cooperation
The nuclear plant deal, which was among more than a dozen signed between Russia and Vietnam in Hanoi yesterday, envisages the construction of two reactors with capacity of 1,000 megawatts to 1,200 megawatts each, he said.
Once completed, the plant would supply "a significant part of Vietnam's power market," Medvedev said.
Rushydro, Russia's biggest renewable energy company, also signed a preliminary agreement with Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, known as PetroVietnam, to build a hydro-power plant in Vietnam during the same ceremony.
RusHydro plans to buy a controlling stake in Dakdrinh Hydropower Co, which is building the 125-megawatt plant and is currently 75 per cent owned by PetroVietnam, the Russian company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
The two parties will prepare the draft contracts before the year-end, it said.
The two countries will cooperate on energy and work together on oil and gas projects in Russia, Vietnam and third countries, Medvedev and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet said at a briefing.
VTB Group, Russia's second-biggest bank, signed an agreement with Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam, the nation's third-biggest lender, to set up a joint $500 million (Dh1,835 billion) fund for investing in energy and mining, VTB chairman Andrei Kostin said.
Next year the parties may start the first stage of the project by raising $85 million in the capital markets to complement $10 million contributed by VTB and $5 million by the Vietnamese partner, Kostin said.
Focus on trade
The transactions capped Medvedev's two-day trip to the Southeast Asian nation, with a delegation that includes Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller and TNK-BP Executive Director German Khan. The focus of the visit was trade, economic relations, investment and cooperation in banking, Sergei Prikhodko, Medvedev's foreign policy aide, said before the group's departure.
Russia also planned to complete an agreement supporting the sale of BP Plc's assets in Vietnam to TNK-BP. Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said today additional work was needed for the accord to become fruitful.
